


paint me in trust, i'll be your best friend

by audioDramatist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Harry Potter, Multi, canon compliant for the main series but not cursed child, harry + ginny bffs 4 ever, harry sort of cheated but theyre gonna talk it out, hogwarts squad universe, its about HONESTY and COMMUNICATION and MUTUAL RESPECT, okay so this is a sequel to another work, wont really make sense unless u read that first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23292388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audioDramatist/pseuds/audioDramatist
Summary: Harry Potter has a phone call to make.Sequel to "you'll fit so nicely, you'll keep me intact" by honey_butter.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom/Harry Potter (mentioned)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 43





	paint me in trust, i'll be your best friend

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [you'll fit so nicely, you'll keep me intact](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23287540) by [honey_butter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honey_butter/pseuds/honey_butter). 



> hi so honey_butter homebrewed a harry potter tabletop roleplaying game for our friends, and since we're #quarantined we've become obsessed with worldbuilding for our little au. anyways this is set during the winter of albus severus' first year at hogwarts (february 2018) and is a direct follow-up to honey's work, set later that morning. 
> 
> i actually haven't read the hp books in years so if my writing is wildly ooc... fuck it, our characters now >:3
> 
> title is from human by dodie :D

Harry had to make a very uncomfortable phone call.

He owned a cell phone, of course. It was 2018, and he and Hermione had converted the Weasleys as well. Hogwarts had spotty reception, but if you stood in the window of the eastern tower you could make a call without much trouble. And so Harry stood in that window, thumb hovering over his wife’s number and the green phone symbol onscreen. 

He had no idea what he was going to say.

“Hello, dear, I know we’ve been married for oh, fourteen years now, but I think it’s about time we start seeing other people.”

“Hi Ginny, how’s our daughter? The one you’re single-parenting since I whisked myself away on a teaching gig at the school that nearly killed us both? How do you feel about splitting up?”

“Good morning, honey, do you remember our friend Neville? Well, I may have kissed him last night. And this morning. How are you?”

Harry sighed and locked the phone. He looked out at the quidditch pitch, the edges of the Forbidden Forest visible past it. 

A memory: slicing through the air at practice, reaching for the Snitch. Someone launching the Quaffle right at him. Harry not noticing, locked in on the tiny winged ball. A redheaded girl swooping in, catching the Quaffle just before it would have whacked him, sent him flying off his broom and onto the grass below. Her laughing as the other Chasers groaned, their joke ruined. Catching the Snitch a moment later, circling down to the pitch, letting it go.

A boy in the spectator seating, watching it take off from Harry’s gloved hand. Smiling.

Fuck.

He had to call Ginny and come clean. She’d understand, he knew–– or she wouldn’t, and everything would change. 

He paused.

Everything had been changing for a while.

They’d been so in love, once. At Hogwarts together, and after the war, and in the years after that–– they never had to be alone, and they never wanted to be. Sure, they spent more time with Ron and Hermione, or Luna or Neville or Dean and Seamus or all the other Weasleys than they did alone together, but when they were alone together it was nice, and they always enjoyed each other’s company.

Harry still enjoyed Ginny’s company. He still loved her more than anyone in the world. But that love had changed. The kids had pushed them both to their limits, in different ways, and their jobs were all-consuming (why Harry had ever thought being an Auror was a good idea he still couldn’t say). And this year when things had calmed down–– Albus and James both at Hogwarts, Lily at school, Ginny mostly working from home aside from a few trips to important Quidditch matches, him… temporarily unemployed–– Harry thought they’d go back to how they were before. And they didn’t.

Ginny was his favorite person. But time with her felt like time with Ron or Hermione. He loved her as a best friend. And he had no idea how to tell her that.

And then there was Neville. The reason this conversation had to happen now, rather than during his next break from teaching. Here in the eastern tower’s window rather than at home, looking his wife in the eye. 

Fuck it.

He unlocked his phone and dialed before he could change his mind again.

It rang two and a half times. Harry only realized he’d been holding his breath when Ginny picked up her phone midway through the third ring, and he let it out. 

“What’s up?” she asked, and he froze again.

This was a bad idea. He should just wait until the weekend, or call in sick for a day and go home, or––

“Harry? You okay?”

“Yeah, I, um. How are you?”

“Alright, yeah. Wasn’t expecting you to call, I guess. Lily won’t be home for a while, she’s got robots after school today and then she’s going to a friend’s––”  
  
“That’s okay, I don’t want to talk–– I mean, I always want to talk to her of course but not right–– I just mean I want to talk to you.” He ran his phone-free hand through his hair. A strand came loose in his fingers. Light grey. Figures.

“Harry, you’re stressing me out. Is something wrong?”

He took a deep breath. He loved Ginny, he trusted Ginny, he’d done something wrong and she deserved to know. Time to own up.

“I just want to say I’m sorry. And I love you and I fucked up and I understand if you don’t forgive me––”

“I love you too– Where are you? Are you safe?”

“East tower. Good reception. I’m fine. I just have to tell you that I kissed someone and I’m sorry.” There. He’d said it. That was the most urgent apology. The rest could wait until later, if need be. 

Ginny was quiet for a second too long for his liking.

“Not a student, I hope,” she said. Harry laughed shakily. 

“No, of course not.”

“Good. We all know how you like younger women.” 

“One year, Gin.”

“And ten days! A year and ten days older, you are, you crook,” she joked, and Harry smiled. He knew what she was doing. Ginny was an expert at calming him down from a panic, with her quick wit and gentle teasing. She still hadn’t addressed the matter at hand, though.

“C’mon, Ginny. Please.”

“Alright. You’ve confessed. Do you feel better?” He had no idea how to read that.

“N-no? A bit? I know it was wrong and I won’t do it again, and––”  
  
“Do you want to?” 

“What?” He was reeling, dizzy. He clamped a hand on the stone windowsill to keep from falling to the floor.

“Do you want to do it again. Kiss them again.” She sounded fierce, but without any sharpness. It was the tone she took when she wanted the truth.

“I– uh.”

“Harry.” He couldn’t lie to her.

“Yes.”

Too much quiet. It may have only been a second, but it may as well have been an hour. Harry gave up on standing and sat on the floor, back leaning against the wall.

“That’s alright,” Ginny whispered, finally.

“No, it’s not, you’re my wife and you deserve better and–”

“When was the last time you kissed me?”

He startled. “What?”

“When was the last time I kissed you? When was the last time we held hands–– and walking the kids across the street doesn’t count.”

“I… I don’t–”

“And sex is a non-starter, of course–”

“Ginny!”

“Listen, Harry, it is sort of a dick move to snog someone while married––”

“Wasn’t really a snog, snogging is more––”

“Not the point. You messed up, but you told me about it and I forgive you. I really do.” She was so sincere, so genuine. He loved that about her. Always had.

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Now, if you’d tried to keep your midnight rendezvous a secret I’d have your head.”

“It was not–!

“I’m messing with you! Seriously. I appreciate the honesty. And I’ll be the first to admit that our relationship isn’t much of one at all. And I understand wanting more, hell, I’ve felt that.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. It’s alright, Harry.” And for what felt like the first time, he could breathe easy.

“You’re my best friend,” he whispered into the phone.

“You’re mine too. Maybe that’s the problem here, yeah?” Ginny said, and Harry almost thought he heard her crying.

“Doesn’t everyone always say to marry your best friend?” he joked, crying as well.

“I think there’s an assumption that you’re marrying a best friend who you’re also attracted to.”

“I was attracted to you.”

“Yeah, you probably were.”

“You weren’t,” he said, and it wasn’t a question or accusation, but a statement of fact. 

“I thought I was. I idolized you for so long, and then I got to know you and you were just as amazing as I always thought you’d be, and then I guess by the time I saw you as a real person I was so sure that I loved you that I never really stopped to check.” 

Harry thought that that should break his heart. He’d spent twenty years with this woman, and she wasn’t sure if she was ever really in love with him. Today, though, it felt like a relief.

“I wish I were home with you right now. I didn’t want to do this over the phone, I just couldn’t live with not telling you.”

“I’d love a hug right now, not gonna lie.” Harry swiped the tears from his cheek, wishing he could do the same for Ginny.

“Me too. I’ll come home this weekend and we can talk more about this, okay?”

“Sounds good. Say hi to Neville for me, yeah?” Harry sputtered, and Ginny gasped. “Oh ho! I had a suspicion, but that all but confirmed it! You know he’s had a crush on you since your fifth year?”

“ _What?_ ”

“Yeah, well, he always told Luna everything. Was cagey with me because he knew I liked you too, but you already know I had a thing for Luna that year, so when I found out I really didn’t mind. Sixth year, when you pulled that ‘no need to call me sir’ line on Snape? We heard about it for _weeks_.”

“I didn’t know!”

“Yeah, well, he stopped publicly mooning over you when we started dating, so I assumed he’d gotten over it, but he might have just been being polite.”

“Oh god. I thought–”

“Uh oh, what did you think?” Ginny asked, already prepared to poke fun at his next words.

“I thought he and Luna?”

“Harry!”

“What!”

“They’re close, yeah, but like. Not in the cards, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t.”

“How have you survived this long?” Ginny asked, and Harry shrugged before realizing that she couldn’t see him.  
  
“Had you around for most of the time.” That made her laugh. 

“Fair. No, Luna and Neville never dated. Pretended to, for a while, but not around us, just his grandma and nosy family friends. Loony doesn’t like men, or much of anyone, and Neville–”

“Wait, if you had a shot with Luna then why didn’t––”

“Because you and I have been together for twenty-one years, you wanker!” Ginny was shouting, but she didn’t sound angry at all. She was having fun, teasing him about their relationship drama like they were teenagers again.

“Oh yeah. Right.” He paused to review. “But Neville liked me?”

“Harry Potter I will hang up on you. I will hang up right now.” 

“No, please!” he cried, and Ginny took mercy on him. “I just didn’t notice.”

“You had a lot going on back at Hogwarts. Of course you couldn’t notice everything. Although I’ll admit I don’t know how you missed quite as much as you did.”

“Dean and Seamus were very stealth!”  
  
“They were not and you know it.”

“Fine.”

“And seriously, Luna’s been wearing radishes from her ears since you met her, did you really think she was a straight woman?”

“I didn’t want to assume?” Harry honestly didn’t know what earrings had to do with sexual orientation. He figured Ginny could rib him for that one later.

“Good man. But we’ve seen that woman decked head to toe in rainbow scarves. At that point, she’s _begging_ you to make some assumptions.”

“Looked good on her, though.”

“Everything looks good on Luna.” That raised a few questions, but Harry decided they could wait until he saw Ginny in person.

“Hey Gin?”

“Yeah?”

“What do we do now?”

“Come home Friday night. We’ll talk. It’ll be alright.”

“Will do,” Harry said, and paused. “I love you.”

“I love you too, you dolt. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye,” he said, and Ginny hung up the phone.

He sat there in the eastern tower, trying to mentally stumble away from the emotional rollercoaster that that phone call had put him through. Ginny forgave him. Neville had liked him during school. Ginny may never have liked him that way at all. There was so much they still had to talk about, but thinking about it didn’t make him anxious. More than anything else, he trusted his wife. His best friend. Whatever happened this weekend, or anytime after, they’d figure it out together.

Harry checked his watch. Half an hour until his next class. Not enough time to go find Neville. They needed to talk as well, but it would have to wait. He stood up, brushed the dust from his pants, and set off for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Outside on the quidditch pitch, a bird took off, singing.

Neville, in the spectator seating, watched it with a smile as it flew away.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading please ask about my player character his name is damon and i love him. sadly he is only 10 when this happens so he could not make an appearance :(


End file.
